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The Druids welcomed (at first anyway) the Christians and at least one major portion of the Irish Druids (namely the Filidh) broke away from Druidry to follow in the footsteps of Patrick. These same Filidh probably became the first monks and may have actually been the monks who began writing down all the stories for posterity. If that is the case then perhaps the first Irish Christian monks were not so bad afterall.... maybe they simply saw an opportunity to preserve something they knew was disappearing.... the knowledge of Irish Druidry.

Patrick had two Druids that were very close to him; Dubthach (his confessor) and another personal servant (whose name escapes me presently).

Druidry was a belief and system and not necessarily a single faith-based belief obviously.
If that was the case with the Ancient Druids, how can we be any different now?

I can picture those monks on the Skellig islands in their small beehive huts doing those manuscripts and putting to written word all those tales by the druids before them. They had dedicated but lonely lives. We owe much to them.

I think what defines any principal system or faith system is what makes it difficult. In the case of 'Druidism' it's balance and neutrality that dont end up being indifference. Druid philosophy doesnt train to be good or evil. It doesnt create polarity between the two, pitting one against the other. I think Hindu has similar philosphies but I dont have Indian ancestors, I have British ancestors and much like Druids aspire to, heritage and clan loyalty matters to me. Perhaps because I dont have any. I am a Spence and that name means 'Bastard'. Nobility in old UK would have children with a mistress and rather than give them the nobility name and 'tarnish' it, the children of a noble mistress would be called 'Spence children'. Meaning that be a Spence didnt mean you were related to every Spence, didnt make them your ancestor.
This also shaped my views on feminite beliefs. Knowing Spence was an invention of men to eliminate an inconvenience, I looked at the mothers. After reading the Earths Children Series by Jean Auel, I stepped away from inherited christianity and started figuring things out as I saw them and not as I was being told them. This is where I ended up.

Where I will be in another 20 years?

Um, well, I respect your view, but I am not interested in being spiritually neutral myself. I am all about being Good aligned. If that's why I hang out with Jesus Christ or some chanting Buddhist on my own time, then that's OK with me. Even so, I just read your post and think its good that you've given us such an insight. My parents divorced when I was quite young and my mother never remarried but my father stayed with woman he ditched us for 35 years until she dumped him. So, in a way that's really different from 'bastard children' and in a way its not. I finally figured out that people who were very prejudiced against the divorced probably because it makes the childrens' lives more like those of bastard children. My son is 'a legitimated bastard'. I spawned after I had already been through a divorce - there was no lawyer lawyer nonsense but it was very painful to be turned into a divorce - I felt it was somehow very brutal even though there was no violence involved. After that I had a baby with the next serious live in boyfriend. We did marry a few years into cohabitation, but a few years after that he also forced through a divorce and so I was single again...Unlike the others, we continued to 'play house' together for another few years. You probably know too much already, but that's that for now.

I tend to view Druidry as a method -- it's essentially scientific in its approach -- more about asking the right questions than a rote religion. I think it's similar to Buddhism in that way -- Buddhism as discribed in the Chan or Zen texts are more about asking the right questions than memorizing the answers to any question that might come up. We do have traditions, but I think that they are more about helping a person to learn to ask good questions in search of good answers.

Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you’ve always known.

Conclusion of the "Commentaries" in "Appendix II: The Religion of Dune"

In our everyday lives we as a people have at our fingertips the most wondrous of things ,,Things that would cause us to be burned at the stake just a few centuries ago and maybe the whole village would be sacked,,We have evolved as all things and people must,,This evolution has its price and the loss of connection to our past is that price,,We are as connected now this very minute than ever thought possible and we are still at a loss,,This electrical age has stolen our hearts and minds from feeling the push and pull and from hearing the pictures,,,,,I am as guilty as the rest but I spend as much time under the forest as I can,,This place in our world for us to be Druids should go farther to return us to a slower walk ,,Were the Druids of old times mystical or just connected and could see the direction and predict the normal outcome of a village,,Druids were a people of many ideas and skills,,Everyday things today would have the Druids of old draining bloods and fluids of their own mothers to try and understand what it was they are seeing as we would cower in fear of the knife and alter in their time,,So was or is it, religion ,,cult or just curiosity that drove them to see and feel the need to know how things worked ,,All of us have evolved to be what we feel is best for them,,My grandfather died in his 80s a life long Mason and Druid and almost 60 years ago now he knew I was a Druid,,So what "IS" Druidry,, Its many wonderful things ,,For me it feeling the Push and the Pull

Through my eyes you still see,, Through my heart you still live ,, For as long as i have breath you will sing,,Thanks Mom

I've greatly appreciated reading these posts. I agree with Alferian in his introduction, it describes me very well in what I naturally believe.

Note: as I use the word “He” I mean woman as well.

My intention is not to offend anyone in what I say, please take it all as an experiential-value that is the core of my life-path. I respect, support and uphold all others in their respective paths, beliefs and directives. As I know they are a perfect product of creation.

I will take a sec to explain some about myself – this is meant only as a foundation to establish my philosophy.
To me druidry is something I inherited from my ancestors – being that I was born of druidic blood lines. I have had on occasion druids of the ancient order visit me throughout my life. I must state that, I am not of a deciduous nature, in fact, I’m very secure in my prognosis. (Again, I’m merely sharing my view) I am about the propagation of freedom, not as a tenuous endeavor but, as a burning innate desire, one that is fostered in every core of my being. The fallowing is only my opinion.

Druidry is an innate awareness of the infinite paradoxical reality’s that govern the dichotomous nature of being. He knows the purposeful duality of the nature of opposites and embraces it as a necessary function toward the creation of life. A druid is intrinsically aware of the unseen (that which the layman cannot see) he knows his own nature both spiritually and maternally; he is the symbiotic connection that transits the three worlds i.e. the material the spiritual and the ethereal. His favorite book of study is found in the facets and observations of nature, his assets come from the divine. A druid converses with the dead frees trapped spirits, and uses the unseen forces of nature to propagate his purpose.

A druid knows all truth, knowledge and wisdom belong not to his self but to the infinite. By knowing that all knowledge, truth and wisdom belong to the infinite he is able to obtain it.
He knows that by freeing is desire to be great he may become great.
A druid is not forceful, not fearful not superstitious and not given to wanton vagrancies of emotion or the whimsical fancies of desire.
His speech is allegorical his demeanor is that of kindness.
He is an asset to all those around him.
He leaves blessings for all those he encounters.
He lowers himself below all and is not given to the depredations of pride.
He acts solely through wisdom and does not converse with the incredulous the ignorant or the prideful beyond the conveyance of his wisdom.
He sees all aspects of nature as being one with himself, all creatures created alive are his family.
He loves all things and therefore loves himself.

All of these things are coming from my heart I do not doubt that they may exist in books of some kind. I take no credit for its wisdom or its faults, those things belong to the infinite.

As the atavistic-adamantine, I bring forth the quintessential and irrevocable predication of sublime intervention toward the dissemination of the pernicious class that has inseminated itself upon the spiritual, to irrevocably bring it to inevitable end.

The word 'truth' is a derivation of the Saxon word Trewid which meant 'quality of faith' or 'quality of correctness' but literally meant 'Tre Wid' Tree knowledge.'Dru Wid' meant oak knowledge in Old English (Dru derives from Dar which is the old Goidelic for Oak.)
Therefore the etymology suggests that Druidism is the pursuit of truth, faith and correctness.
The connotations of oak and tree suggest that it is strong, mighty, well rooted, pan-generational (in human terms), living, nurturing and sustaining of all life and balance.

If your pursuit for truth leads you to Judeo-Christianity, Atheism, Islam, Eastern Spirituality, Science then that in itself is a Druidic journey as you are pursuing the tree knowledge of that path in all its numerous limbs, offshoots and branches.

So, In my own understanding, rather than a religion I would categorize it as a pursuit of truth, faith and correctness in a spirit of love, respect and understanding which in turn does lend itself well to any religion or institution which promotes positive morals and ethics, or the uplift and enlightenment of all men and women.

"There is a grey eye that fills with tears when it looks back towards Erin.
While I stand on the oaken deck of my bark I stretch my vision westwards over the briny sea towards Erin."
St Columcille - Influential Christian Monk and 'likely' Druid from my locality

This is a post I wrote from the thread the Christian-Druid path thread but It reflects my early understanding of what Druidry is just thought I would share.
Take care

The word 'truth' is a derivation of the Saxon word Trewid which meant 'quality of faith' or 'quality of correctness' but literally meant 'Tre Wid' Tree knowledge.'Dru Wid' meant oak knowledge in Old English (Dru derives from Dar which is the old Goidelic for Oak.)
Therefore the etymology suggests that Druidism is the pursuit of truth, faith and correctness.
The connotations of oak and tree suggest that it is strong, mighty, well rooted, pan-generational (in human terms), living, nurturing and sustaining of all life and balance.

If your pursuit for truth leads you to Judeo-Christianity, Atheism, Islam, Eastern Spirituality, Science then that in itself is a Druidic journey as you are pursuing the tree knowledge of that path in all its numerous limbs, offshoots and branches.

So, In my own understanding, rather than a religion I would categorize it as a pursuit of truth, faith and correctness in a spirit of love, respect and understanding which in turn does lend itself well to any religion or institution which promotes positive morals and ethics, or the uplift and enlightenment of all men and women.

This is a post I wrote from the thread the Christian-Druid path thread but It reflects my early understanding of what Druidry is just thought I would share.
Take care

That's great Alferian, thanks for starting this thread. Druidry, or Druidism as it is also known, manifests today in three usually separate ways: as a cultural enterprise to foster the Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages; as a fraternal pursuit to provide mutual support and to raise funds for good causes; and as a spiritual path.